Bosco Verticale: An urban forest grows in Milan
Construction is underway on Stefano Boeri's Bosco Verticale ('Vertical Forest'), twin apartment towers in Milan with cantilevered balconies boasting pollution-trapping, energy-saving lush trees and other vegetation.
Tue, Oct 18 2011 at 12:29 PM EST By Matt Hickman
Images: Stefano Boeri
Remember the Flower Tower,
aka Maison Végetale, a 10-story housing block in Paris with an
otherwise unremarkable façade that’s nearly completely enshrouded with
380 potted bamboo plants? Well, get a load of Bosco Verticale
(“Vertical Forest”), two similarly green-skinned apartment towers under
construction in Milan that blow the Flower Tower right out of the water
… or soil, rather.
Ever since architect Stefano Boeri
released renderings of the twin tree-clad apartment buildings, the
architectural community has been collectively agog over the audacious,
arbor-riffic project that, when completed, will be the world’s first
ever vertical forest.
However dazzling, Bosco Verticale isn’t simply just for show. In
addition to adding eye-catching aesthetic oomph, the buildings’ 900
trees (including oaks and amelanchier) along with a wide variety of
shrubs and flora plants, are meant to absorb CO2 and particles from
Milan’s fabulous but filthy air, shield radiation, produce both humidity
and oxygen, filter noise pollution, and provide energy-saving shade to
each of the tower’s individual apartment units. Additionally, the towers
will boast wind and solar systems along with extensive greywater recycling
systems that will help to irrigate the massive amount of greenery
contained on each of the buildings' staggered cantilevered balconies. A
team of (ideally) non-acrophobic in-house horticulturists will tend to
the trees, the tallest of which will grow to a maximum height of 30
feet.
According to Boeri, if the units of his urban sprawl-busting creation were individual homes on flat terrain, 50,000
square meters of land along with 10,000 square meters of forest would
be required. Bosco Verticale, a “project for metropolitan reforestation
that contributes to the regeneration of the environment and urban
biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the
territory,” is just the first step in Boeri’s brilliant, six-part BioMilano scheme to bring green back into the polluted Italian economic capital.
I'm an instant admirer of the project, although some concerns mostly
pertaining to fire, wind, maintenance, and umm, allergies, immediately
come to mind. Read more about the project over at Stefano Boeri Architetti. The Financial Times also
profiles the project — "the most exciting new tower in the world" — in a
fantastic article about Europe’s greenery-embedded residential tower
movement.
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What's tall and French and green all over?
... none other than Flower Tower, a Parisian apartment block boasting an exterior clad with 380 potted bamboo plants that help residents reduce energy costs while providing a bit of visual va-va-voom.
Images:
Excuse my rather ineloquent reaction but holy hell, check out this building.
It’s called Flower Tower
and it’s without a doubt the greenest apartment building in all of
Paris. Literally. Designed by renowned architect and green wall designer
Edouard François, Flower Tower would be an otherwise humdrum, grey-toned housing block rising 10 stories from Rue Albert Rousell in
the 17th Arrondissement if it weren’t for the building’s most
distinguishing feature: 380 lush, potted bamboo plants lining the
building’s balcony ledges.
Okay, so the name of the shrub-like building is inaccurate given that
bamboo isn’t really a flower but I’m willing to forgive. The plants
themselves — “forming a shaggy green corona around the building, like
some unruly organic coiffure,” in the words of Architectural Review
— are housed in a series of oversized concrete planters that are
embedded into the structure so that they aren’t knocked off — whoops!
— a balcony ledge by high winds or a clumsy resident after imbibing too
many glasses of Lillet. A series of tubes running throughout the façade
of the building supply water and fertilizer to the plants. However, I
imagine that since bamboo grows quite rapidly, periodic trimming has to
be performed by hand.
Perhaps most importantly, aside from giving the building its unusual
and verdant visual appeal, the bamboo “skin” helps to keep the
residences within the building naturally insulated in the winter and
diffuses light and heat during the summer months, reducing energy costs.
I wasn’t aware that Flower Tower even existed until recently spotting it over at Inhabitat. Not surprisingly, the building has received numerous accolades since being built. Jonathan Glancey wrote in a 2004 edition of The Guardian: ”It looks like a giant display of potted plants, it sings in the breeze — and it's one of the best places to live in Paris." The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau even lists the Maison Végetale
as a monument." On that note, I haven’t visited France in several years
but the next time I do, I officially have one additional Parisian tower
to mug for a photo-op in front of.
Via [Inhabitat]
